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Modern Espionage
Plot Late at night ipon the Greendale campus Star-Burns is in the parking garage having just left Vicki's one woman stage show. Before he can enter his car he is approached by Todd and a furious paintball battle erupts between them. Star-Burns gains the upper hand only to have his victory is short when a third party shoots him and Todd with silver paint. The next morning, Frankie has security escort Star-Burns off campus since paintballing is now prohibited. She dismisses Dean Pelton's advice on handling the matter and instead turns to Jeff for help. Deputy Chief Custodian Lapari is being honored at a "Clean Up Greendale" gala and she needs Jeff to introduce him. She asks that at the event he denounce paintball and persuade everyone on campus not to play. Jeff goes to the Save Greendale Committee meeting to explain Frankie's concerns only to learn they are all playing the illegal contest. After the other committee members shoot Chang with paint, Jeff himself is also drawn back into the game. Several competitors rush the study room causing him to seize Chang's abandoned weapon and eliminate them. Frankie arrives a few minutes later and asks about a paintball player who claimed Jeff shot him. Despite her suspicions, Jeff assures her no one on the committee are playing the illegal game. End tag Garrett is on stage in front of a live audience performing stand-up based on surviving Vicki's one woman musical. In particular he mocks a section of her act devoted to her dead mother which the crowd laughs at. However, everyone goes silent when Vicki makes her presence known and confronts Garrett on stage. The audience watches on in dismay only to learn the entire thing was staged to promote a new show starring Vicki and Garrett. The revelation, along with Garrett acknowledging Vicki's very much alive mother in the room, causes the audience to boo. Garrett defends their act by comparing it to Andy Kaufman's subversive comedy and demands recognition for the amount of work they put into it. Recurring themes Continuity *'Previously': This episode features the fourth instance of Paintball Assassin on the show. The first was the action movie homage in Season One with "Modern Warfare". The second was the two part Western/Star Wars themed version Season Two finale "A Fistful of Paintballs"/"For A Few Paintballs More". The third was a brief flashback to a 1920s gangster inspired game in the Season Three episode "Curriculum Unavailable". *'History lesson': Lapari reveals animosity towards Jeff as he and the custodial crew were forced to clean up the campus after paintball games Winger had become infamous for having participated in. *'Returning students': **Koogler returns in this episode. **Vicki, Star-Burns, Todd and Garrett return. *'Familiar faces': **Deputy custodian Lapari returns in this episode. **David, one of the creators of MeowMeowBeenz, is shown DJing Club Club. *'School supplies': **Paintball guns reappear as does Chang's gold painted one from "Modern Warfare". **The board game "The Ears Have It" is shown again. **Britta's glasses appear again. They were last seen in "Basic Email Security". *'School song': The song "Daybreak" is heard in the school's elevator. *'Winger Speech': *'Mad Skillz:' Vicki's singing talents are once again displayed. It is revealed that she majors in music. Running gags *'NOOOOOO!': Annie and Abed both scream this after being eliminated. *'Nice outfit': The Save Greendale Committee is forced wear baby bonnets and pacifiers for a week because they played paintball. *'Deanotation': **Dean Pelton replaces the word "times" and "desperate" with "Dean" and "Dean-sperate" respectively when using the old phrase "Desperate times call for desperate measures". **Pelton tries out a few different names for the committee using his title as part of it. This includes: "The Secret Dean Force", "The Dean Boys", "Task Force Dean", "Dean Sport". Pop culture references *'Shout out': **Lapari mispronounces director 's name and gets corrected by Abed. **Jeff mentions actor **Garrett mentions the late comedian . *'IMDb': **Jeff mentions the movie " ". **Koogler says the first rule of the Club Club is that they're not a " ", referring to dialogue from the 1999 film of the same name. *'Use your allusion': **Frankie uses a popular quote from : "Follow your bliss". Dan Harmon has often spoken of Campbell's influence on his writing. **During the Gala scene, each of the committee members and Pelton's codenames refers to an actor who once played Batman. Abed is Bale ( ), Jeff is Keaton ( ), Annie is West ( ), Elroy is Kilmer ( ), Britta is Clooney ( ), and the Dean is the Voice of (who provided the voice for Batman in the animated series " "). The group's codename is Belfry 'which refers to the saying 'bats in the belfry', meaning insanity. Meta references *'Homage: **The episode's plot, opening sequence and some of its action setpieces are derived from spy movies. **The opening scene with Starburns and Todd in the parking garage could be a reference to the opening scene of "'' ", or any other of the many movies that have a gunfight in a parking garage. **The elevator scene with Dean Pelton is an homage to a scene in the 1995 action movie ''" ". That scene also inspired a similar scene in the 2014 film " ". The homage could possibly be a reference to that as well since former Community executive producers the Russo brothers directed that film. **When shooting breaks out during the gala, Annie and Abed are shooting people with their backs to each other, but they then turn to face each other and continue shooting. This is a reference to the final action scene in the 2005 film " ". **The scene where Lapari, Dean and Jeff shoot each other is a possible reference to the final scene in the film " ". **Vicki and Garrett stage an elaborate show piece designed to promote their next show, but when the audience reacts negatively to their manipulative staging they claim their work is "performance art" simliar to Andy Kaufman's work. Kaufman was notorious for occassionally doing bits that were deliberately designed to provoke a negative reaction from his audience. *'Everyone's a critic': Abed acknowledges certain fans' tendency to call episodes like Modern Espionage parodies, indirectly telling viewers that "homage" is the more appropriate term. *'Résumé': **Dean Pelton guesses that Lapari has done stand-up which refers to actor 's stand-up career. **Erik Charles Nielsen's stand-up career is also acknowledged with Garrett's stand-up in the end tag. Gallery 6x11_Promopic1.jpg 6x11_Promopic2.jpg 6x11_Promopic3.jpg 6x11_Promopic4.jpg 6x11_Promopic5.jpg 6x11_Promopic6.jpg 6x11_Promopic7.jpg 6x11_Promopic8.jpg Category:Community Episodes Category:Season 6 Episodes Category:Paintball Assassin